Kangaroos have been made a few times in Second Life, but remain few and far between in terms of how up-to-date they are, or whether they are available or not. AnthroXtacy takes on an approach to the species with their own avatar, complete with pouches and a hopping animation overrider.

Out of the Box:

Observations:

Build and Skin:

• The textures on this avatar are consistent from body textures to those on the attachments. From a distance, the textures appear soft, and the transitions between colours are well thought out. Looking up close, you can see the detail that the creator has put into soft-looking fur. The avatar comes with ample shading and highlighting which avoids flatness in the avatar’s look. In some areas, the highlighting may be emphasised, such as with the female skin’s breast-area. This avatar comes with a male and female skin which are appropriate for their respective genders in terms of frontal shading. The only major criticism for the skin would be the Mature Female Skin, where the nipples have the “Stick-On Effect.” (Warning, Photo is rated Mature. Click here to view the Female Mature Skin)
• Build-wise, the avatar was constructed soundly, with minimal creasing on the head, where it counts most. The thighs are a little ill-fitting as we’ll discuss later, though. Otherwise, the sculpts are clear-cut and largely smooth.

Body:

• The feet and the legs rely heavily on each other, so we’ll discuss them as one attachment. The feet themselves remain mostly true to a kangaroo’s; large, long, and slender with a noticeable big toe, accompanied by two ‘digits’ at the sides. Technically the toe on the in-step should be two tiny ones, but this probably might not have looked as symmetrical as the feet currently look. The leg itself arches up into a semi-ish digitigrade leg before joining the shape-leg. A criticism here is that the foot and leg arch back a fair bit, in a peculiar shape. Technically, Kangaroos are plantigrade rather than digitigrade, and the ‘long’ feet don’t work with the digi-leg design.
• Next up is the upper portion of the leg. The avatar comes with thigh prims which give the impression of extra large, thick haunches. We can see the intent to give the avatar’s hindlegs some thickness for a more convincing overall look. The textures are well made, but unfortunately, the thighs look a bit bulbous and slightly unconvincing. Wearing these thighs, however, makes the legs look LESS digitigrade and more plantigrade, which is a good thing. We also note that when you activate the Animation Overrider, the avatar hunches forward; making the thighs look a bit better, as well as make the avatar look yet more plantigrade.
• Users have the choice of wearing the avatar without the optional thighs, as shown in the accompanying photos. Users have to be sure that when they take the thigh prims off, that they wear the right version of the attachments, (e.g. Non-thigh alpha or the Legs with invisiprims). After doing this, another problem presents itself. Without the thigh prims, the kneecaps are raised and look as if they’ve been cut half-way out of where the shape leg meets the digitigrade leg. Additionally, for the male shape, some artifacts of the shape leg will peek through the invisiprims, meaning that users will have to adjust the invisiprims properly to hide the shape leg underneath.
• At this point, we approach the tail. The avatar comes with both a flexible tail and a sculpted tail. The flexible tail is simple and effective, though, being flexible, it can’t mimic a kangaroo tail properly. However, the sculpted tail allowed the creator some creativity and the ability to make convincing shapes. To that end, the sculpted tail comes with 4 different states that can be set using the HUD. Kangaroo enthusiasts may wish to have more detail in the tail, and tail-lovers will wish the tail was a good deal thicker, but I find that for most purposes, the tail works. There is one extra tail-state that users cannot select, though. We’ll mention that one later.
• The avatar also comes with a pouch, as one would expect. Some peers complained about the female avatar having a pouch and breasts simultaneously, but this isn’t really a big issue. In many a cartoon or in furry art, we’ve seen female kangaroos and furries with breasts and a pouch. To that extent, the pouch was decently well made with good textures and shape. Because of the concave shape, users should be able to stuff their pouch with little items and knick-knacks for fun.
• Before we move onto the head, I’ll quickly bring up the hand-paw attachments. They are a 50/50 cross between hand and a paw, set in a reasonably relaxed position. The design isn’t bad at all, but the fingers do look a bit knobbly on the joints between the palm and the fingers. Users are given the ability to manipulate the finger positions through the HUD, with 6 presets (e.g. middle finger, pointing, etc.) and the ability to change the ‘state’ of each finger-digit.

Head:

• Finally, the head. From the front, the head looks very approachable, with bright, friendly eyes, and a well-contoured muzzle. From side angles is where we begin to see the slightest bit of issues, however.
• Regardless of angle, the muzzle performs strongly with a Roo-ish muzzle shape and texture design. About the only criticism that could be offered for the muzzle is that the nose a bit much like a canine’s. All the same, the muzzle is set in a neutral, enigmatic expression, and the interior of the muzzle is well crafted, to say the least. Users can stick their tongue in and out, and the textures and sculpts in the mouth were neatly executed.
• The eyes, as we’ve mentioned are bright and friendly looking, with very clear and nicely textured two-tone irises and pupils. The shape of the eyes is also good, but an issue that comes up surrounds the positioning of the eyes. Simply put, the eyes are a bit too far down, vertically on the face. Had they been placed further towards the top of the head, the face wouldn’t have looked as odd from the side.
• One last remark on the head is that we find that the ‘base’ of the head stretches forward a bit, putting considerable distance between the eyes and the back of the head.
• In all, the head does look very kangaroo-like, save for the eye-position. The avatar’s ears finish off the look with a long, tall, and slightly concave shape. Users are able to modify the position of the ears, as well as toggle the ears’ automatic twitching.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):

• This avatar’s HUD is very user-friendly and self explanatory. For users desiring extra detail on the function of the HUD, they can click this link and visit the [AX] instruction guide, complete with a breakdown. As usual, the site explains many parts of the avatar with precise details and photographic examples. It includes information on how one can adjust the avatar shape, to finer details of avatar operation.

http://anthroxtacy.com/axavs-rooins.html

This avatar comes with a full multitude of customisation options, of which we show some of the possible the facial expressions below.

Animation Overrider:

• This avatar comes with an animation overrider that comes with 6 animations. These include anything from standing idly in a typically kangaroo stance, jumps, and of course, hopping ‘walk’ and a hopping ‘run.’ Each of these were all animated very smoothly, though some may feel that the avatar moves a bit too much back and forth (as if breathing heavily) in its idle animation.

• There is one extra neat feature written into the avatar, which includes the missing tail-state we mentioned earlier. By activating the “Sit’ on the HUD, the avatar’s tail suddenly reshapes to ‘support’ the weight of the roo as the avatar leans back, using the tail as a makeshift seat. The execution of this feature is very well done, and grants the avatar moments of cuteness.

Customisation:

This avatar can be easily customised, thanks to the modifiable and copiable permissions. Fitting hairs shaped for human heads is difficult, mostly because the head-shape for this avatar is unique.

Conclusion:

• This avatar makes for a fully functional kangaroo. Users who wish to find a solution to the lack of up-to-date modern kangaroo avatars available can consider this a choice. The head is the strongest part of the avatarhere, but the attachments, in particular the legs (with and without the thigh prims) feel slightly incomplete and rushed. The animation overrider helps to give this Kangaroo the ‘bounding’ lively quality and gives the avatar much of its character. As a whole, however the avatar doesn’t have the ‘polish’ needed to make this more aesthetic and complete of an avatar, especially compared to the [AX] Cat and Feral Phoenix avatars.